Asda chairman Alan Leighton has insisted the supermarket’s turnaround strategy remains intact despite a sharp slowdown in Q3, instead blaming the dip squarely on disruption caused by its transition to the new Future systems platform.

For the quarter ending 30 September, the supermarket giant reported total revenues of £5.1bn (ex-fuel) with like-for-like sales down 2.8%.

The retailer said the decline was “materially” driven by tech disruption as more than 2,500 legacy Walmart systems were separated and replaced with Asda’s own platforms.

Speaking on a post-results media call, Leighton said the system’s rollout triggered “severe disruption” across stock flow, store availability and grocery home shopping, where issues with the new app also made it difficult for customers to use.

Leighton described the impact as “self-inflicted”, stressing it had “nothing to do with competitors doubling up on pricing or marketing”.

“Availability is back to where it was in June, operational issues are reducing and performance in recent weeks is improving, but we do not expect to re-establish our Q2 2025 position until Q2 of 2026,” he said.

The chairman also responded to questions of downgrade of Asda parent Bellis Finco’s debt rating from a ‘B+’ to a ‘B’ earlier this week by rating agency Fitch.

Leighton described Asda as a “highly cash-generative business” citing a strong capital structure, £8bn of assets, and over a billion of liquidity, ultimately dismissing concerns that the downgrade would force a change in strategy.

“All we can do is feed that information in, tell them about our strategy, and they have to make a decision,” he said.

Looking ahead, Leighton added that while Future IT transition had temporarily disrupted performance, the retailer’s three-to-five-year turnaround plan remained firmly in place.

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